Lesson seeds are ideas that can be used to build a lesson aligned to the CCSS. Lesson seeds are not meant to be all-inclusive, nor are they substitutes for instruction.
When developing lessons from these seeds, teachers must consider the needs of all learners. It is also important to build checkpoints into the lessons where appropriate
formative assessment will inform a teachers instructional pacing and delivery.

Unit Overview

This is a trans disciplinary unit that integrates most supporting Grade K Literature and
Informational Text Standards, as well as, Vocabulary Acquisition and Use Standards.
Students work towards mastery of multiple Social Studies standards in the areas of
Economics (Standard 4), Geography (Standard 3) and Social Studies Skills and Processes.
Additionally, students will engage in STEM practices to explore how people use vehicles
to live, work, and play. In the area of Economics students will learn how people make choices
related to good and services, how technology affects living, working, and playing, and how
goods are acquired. In Geography, students will explore maps and globes to locate places and describe how
transportation and communication link people and places. Students will utilize reading standards, understand,
interpret, synthesize, and express social studies knowledge in Social Studies Skills and Processes.

The unit is divided into different modes of transportation: bicycle, train, boat, and plane, moving students
from self to less familiar modes of transportation. In this unit students will explore different ways
individuals use transportation to live, work, and play. Students build an understanding and evaluate the
effectiveness of how different modes of transportation depending on the purpose and intent. Students will
synthesize information learned through literary and informational texts/media to design a specific type of
boat. The unit will culminate with students developing a travel plan using a mode of transport to present
to an agreed upon audience. Lessons build with the expectation that students will learn reading, writing, and
social studies concepts through whole group read alouds, close readings, and multiple exposures to a text
and/or multiple exposures to a concept through various texts. The Paperboy by Dav Pilkey, Henry Hikes to
Fitchburg by D.B. Johnson, Boat Book by Gail Gibbons, and The Toy Boat by Randall de Seve, serve as anchor texts,
as well as other seed lessons, to teach not only the language standards but many reading, writing, and speaking and
listening standards.

These lessons and seeds can be adjusted to meet the needs and interests of individual students.
The sequence of lessons and seeds, as well as the lesson design, were developed with gradual release
of responsibility with an emphasis on collaborative student groups. Utilizing a multi-sensory and
multi-media approach incorporates multiple components of UDL.

This unit was written with the intention of using it towards the latter part of Kindergarten.
If using this unit if the first part of Kindergarten, consider adding Foundational Skills and
Conventions of Standard English (CCSS) to support beginning learners needs.

STUDENT OUTCOMES

TEXT MODELS FOR LESSONS AND LESSON SEEDS

Consider the need for Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) and/or for captioned/described
video when selecting texts, novels, video and/or other media for this unit. See “Sources for
Accessible Media” for suggestions at here.

This is the Way We Go to School by Edith BaerThe World’s Fastest Machine by Marcie AboffHide and Seek: Things That Go by DK PublishingBicycle Safety by Lisa HerringtonThe Paperboy by Dav PilkeyHenry Hikes to Fitchburg by D.B. JohnsonClickety Clack by Rob and Amy SpenceThe Little Engine that Could by Watty PiperFreight Trains by Darlene R. StilleLittle Bear’s Little Boat by Eve BuntingBoat Book by Gail GibbonsToy Boat by Randall de SeveFlying by Donald CrewsPlanes by Anne Rockwell
Website: America on the MoveClick to Watch

Interdisciplinary Connections

This is a trans disciplinary unit that integrates most supporting Grade K Literature and Informational Text Standards, as well as,
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use Standards. Students work towards mastery of multiple Social Studies standards in the areas of Economics
(Standard 4), Geography (Standard 3) and Social Studies Skills and Processes. Additionally, students will engage in STEM practices to
explore how people use vehicles to live, work, and play. In the area of Economics students will learn how people make choices related
to good and services, how technology affects living, working, and playing, and how goods are acquired. In Geography, students will
explore maps and globes to locate places and describe how transportation and communication link people and places. Students will utilize
reading standards, understand, interpret, synthesize, and express social studies knowledge in Social Studies Skills and Processes.